70s Movie Soundtracks & Film Scores From the Best of Hollywood
Movie scores and soundtracks are much more than a simple accompaniment to a film. The perfect composition woven into a scene of a movie can guide viewers' emotions, reveal the characters' inner thoughts and establish the world of the film.
The 70s was a decade of brilliant film music with many of the scores and soundtracks winning awards and defining the industry. Here is a short list of just a few of the most iconic and effective 70s movie soundtracks and scores of this musically prolific decade.
1. 'Star Wars'
Let's get started with the obvious choice. Everyone agrees that John Williams' original scoring of this beloved Star Wars should be at the top of any list of the best 70s movie soundtracks. After the 60s trend of using popular music for movie soundtracks, Williams single-handedly ushered sweeping orchestration back into film.
George Lucas initially wanted to use classical compositions to score the film, but Williams convinced him that an original score was needed. From the sweeping main title to the triumph of "The Throne Room and End Title" to the funky space-age jazz of the "Cantina Band," Williams created a soundtrack that was reminiscent of the classical masters and yet entirely new. It was the perfect compliment to Lucas's homage to spaghetti westerns, set "in a galaxy far far away."
2. 'Grease'
This is another no-brainer when it comes to great 70s movie soundtracks. Grease brilliantly combined the sound of 1950s popular music with upbeat modern originals that captured the fun irreverence of the film.
The film was based on the Broadway musical of the same name, but the movie introduced several new songs that became more famous than the originals. The title song "Grease," the Sandy and Danny duet "You're the One That I Want" and Sandy's heartbreaking solo "Hopelessly Devoted to You" were all original to the film and all climbed to the top of popular music charts in both the United States and the UK.
3. 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller'
Not a blockbuster hit like some of the films on this list, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is considered by some movie aficionados to be a near-perfect film. It is a film that is beautiful in its relentless sorrow and lack of hope.
Reportedly, director Robert Altman completed filming without having chosen any music and was at a loss for what would pair with his desolate tale. When he heard a Leonard Cohen song, he realized that it would be the perfect match for his film. He would later say that he wondered if he had unconsciously heard Cohen's music in his head as he framed his scenes.
The result is one of the most impactful 70s movie soundtracks on this list. Cohen's songs amplify the desolate cinematography and guide viewers even deeper into the tragically inescapable loneliness of the film's characters. Both the film and Cohen's music can stand on their own, but the combination creates a hopeless and heartbreaking beauty.
4. 'A Clockwork Orange'
Classical music had to be a part of the film version of A Clockwork Orange. The novelist Anthony Burgess included so many references to Bach and Beethoven in his book that the sound of classical music was intertwined with the story. Director Stanley Kubrick was faced with the task of honoring those thematics but finding music that would also convey the futuristic and violent dystopia that the story represented.
Enter composer Wendy Carlos. Carlos created heavily synthesized versions of classical works and composed several original pieces for the movie. The dichotomy of the soaring beauty of the classical music made electronic with synthesizers and the shocking violence of the film was a perfect representation of the twisted mind of the main character and of the society he lived in.
5. 'Halloween'
This horror film classic spawned a slew of equals that spanned three decades. Although not nearly as bloody or gory as the horror films that would follow it, Halloween remains one of the scariest films ever made. This is due in part to having one of the most brilliant 70s movie soundtracks ever.
John Carpenter created a score that is rather simplistic on its face, but it is the score's ability to build tension and misdirect the viewer's expectations that makes it brilliant. Much like the theme to Jaws, much of the score for Halloween plays on the repetition of a few minor notes that serve to fray the viewer's nerves until they are sitting on the edge of their seat. The result is a horror cult classic that still evokes more jump scares than many other scary movies combined.
6. 'Manhattan'
Woody Allen used multiple George Gershwin songs to make up this 70s movie soundtrack. Widely known as Allen's love letter to Manhattan, the director says he knew before he began filming that he would use Gershwin's music to score it.
This is a rare instance of a film and an existing body of musical work that seem to fit seamlessly together. Brooklyn-born Gershwin and New York City native Allen shared a singular view of Manhattan, and although Gershwin passed away in 1937, the perfection of the collaboration between these two men feels like they were contemporaries who shared the same vision.
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